Going under in Honduras November 13, 2011 at 12:52 pm
2011 – September
The Swiss buddies (Dominik – Philipp) had an idea to go diving off an island of Honduras named Utila which sounded good. So, I jammed some junk in a bag and headed out. Before leaving I was able to convince a local friend to come along for a new experience (Todd). Getting into Honduras was easy, however getting to the island was damn expensive. A three hour cab ride followed by another hour and a half ferry ride ended up costing $145 USD. Luckily my standby flight got bumped around and Todd and I split the cost for transport. Once on the island transport to the lodging was accomplished by a few unloved bicycles. Accommodation was arranged previous to our arrival by the always prepared Swiss buds 😉 We rented a beach castle fit for a party of 25 all to ourselves and a personal maintenance man to boot. Maxin’n Realxin was easy and we were only 50 meters from a coral reef worthy of being named as a dive spot. 
I’ve lived in Florida just about my whole life but the heat in Utila is ridiculous. The only thing that kept us alive was slightly cold beer called “Salva Vida” and the fact that we were on vacation and didn’t have tight schedules. The main reason for going to Utila was that the scuba diving is good and cheap. We arranged some fun dives and concentrated on keeping hydrated (Salva Vida). The dive shops were slack about nearly everything, they didn’t check my dive card or proper name or ask for payment or maintain their dive gear. Their only preparation was to make sure the captain showed up and that there were sufficient cookies on board. Beings as I’m a sucker for cookies all went well.
Eight dives later we realized why people come to this lil slice of paradise. The dive spots are warm, clear and close. The corals are colorful and plentiful. We used the same dive shop for all the dives cause we are too lazy change. Dominik had just bought a new fancy underwater camera and was able to get some great shots. We did one dive that was called the “dropoff” which turned out to be really nice. The transition between shallow warm coral filled water to deep dark blue abyss is something that needs to be seen in person. Hopefully you will get an idea of how beautiful the places were by the pictures and videos that were taken.
http://www.youtube.com/user/dedch1
http://ungroundartwork.com/Utila-Honduras-2011/album/
A couple weeks went by and the people that had real life activities to attend to went back and did whatever it is that those people do and I found myself on another chicken bus in a strange place. Shuttles are available to get tourists around but since I had some time and not much money I decided to wing it and go with the locals. Seven hours and four buses later I ended up in a small village called Copan Ruinas. I was headed towards Guatemala and this place was on the way so I thought I’d get some history while traversing the country.
